Varadkar “there is room for flexibility” on the part of the EU
3 Jan. () –
The Prime Minister of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, has affirmed that all parties “have made mistakes” in the management of Brexit and has opened up to concessions in relation to the protocol established for Northern Ireland, since “perhaps” it is “too strict “.
Varadkar, criticized in certain unionist sectors for his responsibility in the Brexit negotiations – at that time he was also prime minister -, however, empathizes with those in Northern Ireland who may see their integration into the United Kingdom threatened by the protocol.
Said protocol was established so that Northern Ireland could continue within the European common market, at the cost of establishing controls on trade with the rest of the British territories. The UK government has threatened to challenge the deals if there are no further concessions from the EU.
“I am sure that we all made mistakes in the management of Brexit”, said Varadkar, reflecting on a process for which “there was no road map”, since never before had a country decided to leave the European Union, according to the RTE chain.
The prime minister, who took up the baton again in December after a first stage of the legislature dominated by Micheál Martin, a coalition partner, wants to travel to Northern Ireland early this year to meet with all the parties and is trying to “find a solution”.
He considers that “there is room for flexibility and for changes”, in a position that he says he shares with the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, and with the main negotiator of this Executive, Maros Sefcovic. “I understand that there are two parts to this story,” Varadkar said.
London and Brussels reactivated the dialogue at the highest level in mid-December to resolve the pending disputes, after initial contacts with the Rishi Sunak government that Von der Leyen came to describe as “encouraging”.
The central government of the United Kingdom and the unionist parties have criticized the consequences derived from the Northern Irish protocol, since they consider excessive the limits imposed on internal trade in exchange for Northern Ireland being able to continue within the Common Market.
The EU, for its part, defends that they are the same provisions that were “negotiated, agreed upon and ratified” also by the British when the conditions of the divorce were agreed upon and warns that failure to comply means violating an international treaty. Brussels, in fact, denounced the United Kingdom before the Court of Justice of the European Union for it.
